I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song/
I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long.

Aging, Time and Love are themes in several of Simon’s songs and that is the theme here, in “Leaves That Are Green”. I always found the lyric above interesting. If you take it literally, it is nonsensical: you could never write this song with these lyrics when you were 21 but now be 22 and have the words be the same. But we get what he is saying. Ultimately, he ties this song back to his love a girl. Once it was green like spring, now it is dying and turning to brown. The relationship is ending. That is a powerful simile if ever there was one.

Make sure you listen to the acoustic version of “Leaves That Are Green” from the Paul Simon songbook. We can hear Simon’s expertise at finger-picking. He is a very precise guitar player. This version is just Simon singing—without Garfunkel. Just as with The Boxer, we can hear that Simon has an incredible, underrated voice that is capable of singing lead on an all-time great song. His voice was not as fantastic as Garfunkels’ but few are. Maybe it was an A compared to an A+. He conveys emotion without overindulging. He is a great example for aspiring male vocalists to emulate.

Leaves That Are Green Lyrics

I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long
Time hurries on
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown
And they wither in the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl

I held her close but she faded in the night
Like a poem I meant to write
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown
And they wither with the wind
And they crumble in your hand
I threw a pebble in a brook
And watched the ripples run away

And they never made a sound
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown
And they wither iwith the wind
And they crumble in your hand
Hello, hello, hello, hello
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
That’s all there is
And the leaves that are green
Turn to brown

written by Paul Simon